This guide will show you how to connect to a Fire TV or Fire TV Stick using Android Debug Bridge (ADB) from a Mac or Windows computer. Connecting to your Fire TV device via ADB allows you to remotely perform many different tasks, such as sideloading applications.
- If you haven’t done so yet, enable ADB debugging on your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick by following this guide.
- If you haven’t done so yet, determine your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick’s IP address by following this guide.
- If you haven’t done so yet, install ADB on your Mac or Windows PC by following this guide.
- Launch Command Prompt on Windows or Terminal on Mac. For Windows, you can find Command Prompt by searching or by pressing [Windows Key] + R on your keyboard and entering cmd. For Mac, you can find Terminal by searching (press ⌘-Space) or in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder.
- [OPTIONAL] To ensure ADB is installed, enter the command:
adb version You should seeAndroid Debug Bridge version #.#.# printed if ADB is installed.
- Enter the command:
adb kill-server 
- Enter the command:
adb start-server 
- Enter the command:
adb connect <ipaddress> Be sure to substitute<ipaddress> with your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick’s IP address from step 2.
- [OPTIONAL] Ensure you are connected correctly by entering the command:
adb devices You should see only one device listed along with the IP address you just entered.
To disconnect properly
- Enter the command:
adb disconnect <ipaddress> Be sure to substitute<ipaddress> with your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick’s IP address.
- Enter the command:
adb kill-server
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Could you please tell me where I can download ADB debugging ? Thanks in advance
there is a link in the how to install adb doc referenced in step 3 above.
how do i connect with a cable or with an app
For linux its : open the terminal
type sudo apt install adb
type admin password when prompted
answer Y to install
find the ip of your firet least that is where mine is located. Most likelyt will be tv from settings menu on top of home screen, then my fire tv then about, then Network. At least that is where mine was found.
It most likely will be a number such as: 192.168.1.xxx or 192.168.0.xxx
Mine is 10.0.0.xxx as that is the schema i chose on my router.
To see if it is correctly installed try typing this in command prompt ( linux, Mac or Windows versions)
adb version
You should see Android Debug Bridge version #.#.# printed if ADB is installed.
then typeon your fire stick, fire tv adb connect
using the ip address you found earlier on your fire tv device, fire stick, fire cube and fire tv
type adb devices to see if you are connected to your fire tv.
once you have found the apk file such as mindcraftxx-xx.apk or game.apk or utility.apk
whatever the exact name is case sensitive. I suggest you either copy the file to your adb directory or rename it to a simple name like mindcraft.apk.
then once you know exact path where the file is located. then to install it try this:
adb connect
abd install mindcraft.apk (or filename)
then once successfull goto fire tv menu, SETTINGS, then APPLICATIONS, then MANAGE INSTALLED APPLICATIONS,
Then find your mindcraft or other app and run it.
This is just the basics but hope it helps
you dont download adb debugging, its a setting that has to be enabled on the fire tv stick
Dummy, you know what he meant I’m sure..mmm
My Amazon fire box loaded with KODI don’t always fill up cache & also was wondering how to down load movies , Im new to using KODI , I’m enjoying watching movies, jus afraid of messing something up !also wondering about the new update, will it screw it up ?
What do I do if at step 9 I see 3 devices instead of only the IP?
If you have devices, like smart phones, connected to your PC, unplug them. If the devices list IP addresses when you enter “adb devices” then enter “adb disconnect” for the devices that are not your Fire TV.
Can this be used to set up a new firestick? i have the app on my phone but have to set it up to my wifi first since i dont have the remote. Thanks in advance
How do you connect the firestick to the computer so you can root it? Is there a patch cord that will link the firestick to computer?
That’s why you need to start the server and get the ip adress
Not sure I follow
Hi, I have installed adb on my Windows 10 PC as administrator per instructions. When I open the command prompt window and type adb version and just says adb is not a recognized command.
Try to put the adb folder in your c: drive main direction or try to start it as admin or the other way i can’t remember what worked for me.
I am having trouble connecting the IP address through adb. I enter adb connect and get the reply unable to connect to :5555. Why is this happening? (I am putting in the IP address by the way, not )
I follow this entire guide and everything checks out except the device is always “offline”. Ugh.
For me on the Fire TV I have to go into Settings – System – Network and forget my network connection. Then reconnect to it. Then go back to Terminal kill the server, start the server, connect and then it shows “device” instead of showing “offline”. Man do I need a script for this.
nope, just reboot the FTV works like a charm.
Try turning off/on ADB Debugging. This worked for me.
After doing this, how can I now stop updates to the fire stick
What donindonif the fire stick downloaded a voice feature that won’t allow me to use remote properly and not at all for kodi?
Just wondering does the firestick need to be plugged into the pc during all of this. Or in the tv?
TV
I only have an iPhone and fire stick. Is it possible to get Es explore and kodi just using them?
After I put in adb connect I get an error that’s says
The syntax of the command is incorrect.
How can I resolve this issue?
did you ever find a resolution? Im having the same problem
adb connect 10.0.0.9 – you must supply the ip address
How do you control ADB on Fire TV if you cannot get a screen to show. Cannot get past Amazon Logo screen?
I just hooked up my rooted stick and didn’t have to do anything. it automatically detected the wired connection and I hooked up a wireless keyboard & mouse ,it detected those also.
Thanks so much for all the info!!
I used the same cables you did except I found a cheaper ethernet adapter made by amazon.
Have it downloaded correctly on my laptop, on the same wi-fi system, it will not connect to the stick, IP address is correct and everything. Am I missing something?
I’ve been using the ADB Fire app (playstore) to sideload to my firestick. Works great and is easy. Take any app on your device and push /install on firestick.
Thanks….will give this a try.
Thank you
When i go onto network your picture shows a mac address for the lan aswell as wifi which mine doesnt and then it days unable to connect when i go through the terminal set up and type in ‘adb connect …> Any advice thankyou!
hi ive done steps 1-9 and nothing is happening it says still connected to wifi not ethernet any ideas guys??
It’s much easier to use the ADB Fire app. Just depends on what you are trying to do.
Sorry, “AGK Fire”
How can I connect the tv wire stick by adb ?No access to settings.
How to Solve Issues with a software update fire tc stick ?
I tried all the methods found on the internet but does not work.It show me every
time message Unable to update your Amazon fire tv stick.I tried many times.My product is Fire Tv Stick
(1 st generation).I tried factory reset by pressing RIGHT + BACK 10 seconds.Thank you
Lost my Fire Stick remote & unable to connect to wifi to use adb that way, is it possible to plug directly into USB & issue adb commands that way? TIA
Any tricks to get the new wireless touchscreen keyboard to connect to firestick (USB dongle, otg cable doesn’t help) tried FN+F1 and left mouse+volume up tricks to pair but nothing happened
adb devices command returns me nothing. List of devices attached is blank. This is for amazon fire tv first generation. I bricked it, no light nothing, only when i put male-to-male usb cable and put the power cable on the aftv the storage comes up. but nothing else, anyone experienced this before? please help me :(
Thanks for this great guide. Used it to change sleep timeout on my FireStick and it worked perfectly. Well, maybe — I seem to now have one issue. Holding down the home button doesn’t always bring up the mini menu that lets me choose apps, sleep, etc. Sometimes first I have to bring up the home screen. Could this be related somehow to using adb debugging to change the sleep setting? Or maybe this has always been a quirk and I never noticed it?
Hi, I have downloaded the ‘remote ADB shell’. I have entered the IP address which is 10.15.187.30 however I can’t seem to determine what the port address should be. The application suggests it should be 5555, however this isn’t working. Any help?
That is not your local network connection: it should start with 192.168.
Find it when you view your network connection on your Fire TV as per step #2
I have 2 Firesticks in separate locations. The instructions worked perfectly on the first item but when I enter the IP address for the second, I get a display “empty host name”. Any ideas please ? Thanks in advance.
Forget this one guys, I’ve sorted it. If anyone has the same issue, I followed the simple suggestion offered by Nathan on the topic of changing default settings of sleep and screen saver and it worked a treat. (Download Remote ADB Shell to another Android device and connect by that).
What if the fire TV isn’t on any network, due to a house move, for example? How can it be accessed / reset / configured, with no remote & no IP?
I wanted to say thanks! I come back every couple years to reference this when I get a new firestick or set one up for a friend/family member. This is incredibly helpful, so thank you!
For more help https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/connecting-adb-to-device.html
When I connect to the Fire TV cube IP address using “adb connect 192.168.1.xxx”, it says failed to authenticate. When I type “adb devices”, it reports:
List of devices attached
192.168.1.xxx:5555 unauthorized
That most likely means that a message to approve the connection appeared on your Fire TV and you didn’t approve it in time. Try disabling ADB on the Fire TV and then re-enabling it and trying to connect again.
Yup, thanks, figured that one out pretty quick last night. I was on my desktop computer in another room and didn’t notice the approval message on the TV.
I’m looking for adb commands to get a Firestick to factory reset once bootlooped. I’ve heard a lot of people say adb reboot factory works, but it actually kills Firesticks after reading up on it. That command would work on android devices, but it doesn’t seem to work correctly on the Firestick from what I’ve gathered. These Firesticks bootloop so easily and I’m very curious if there are any adb commands out there capable of kicking a Firestick out of bootloop – preferably by reinstalling the OS but if I could even access the home screen once bootlooped that’d be a win too. I know how to push apks and remove them, but I would like to know other helpful adb commands if the problem cannot be resolved by removing the apk through adb. I also know you can root certain devices on exploitable firmware and create a custom recovery bootloader but mine isn’t on an exploitable firmware. It does however have a solid wired connection with adb. My Firestick is currently alive and fully functional but any ideas for the upcoming inevitable future bootloop would be very much appreciated!
I seem to have hit a little snag, that has grown up with Amazon updates.
Wondering if anyone has seen a workaround for this yet?
It would seem, that if you enable more than one profile (as we have, so my Dad show status and such is relevant for him, as compared to us, and we can still share the one amazon prime login, blah blah blah)…
When you turn off the screen/tv, the firestick is staying on as planned, (verified by pinging for hours) but as soon as you turn the TV back on, it right away reverts to the “whose profile do you want” screen.
Wouldn’t matter so much, except that it dumps one out of apps (like Kodi) that you left running… :)